Posts Tagged ‘Lifeless Planet’

There are days when I envy the faceless, nameless protagonist of latest walk-around-a-bit-‘em-up Lifeless Planet. He’s well and truly alone, fifteen light-years from Earth, stranded on a barren planet. His life is simple: seek oxygen and answers before hunger, asphyxiation or dust storms render him little more than a far flung corpse. Confusingly, there’s a Russian research base and a mysterious woman here too. Good for him, then, that he’s had the luck to be dropped into a game with style – beautiful, well written and with just the right level of creepy atmosphere – one Kickstarter should be proud of. Here’s Wot I Think.

Look, I know exactly 42% of you think Going For A Walk games are destroying videogames, but this is one instance where a game would be a whole lot better if it stuck to observation over interaction. Insta-death jump-puzzles are not what a game about exploring a strange, apparently uninhabited new world tinged with tragedy and mystery really needs. Wonderful, sweeping scenery: yes. Vast, surprising architecture: yes. Clangy soundtrack of celestial doom: yes. Russian-language audiologs: yes. Eerie, lonely stomps across apparently infinite alien terrain: yes. Yes! A strange and unsettlingly space-place, free from guns and conventional monsters. Yes. Falling off a ledge again and again: no, why, no, no, no, please, no.

Lifeless Planet had a bit of a slip earlier this year, but there are finally signs that things are moving forward. A new trailer shows features a frustrating amount of the same footage we’ve already seen of the third-person action/puzzler, but there’s also some narration offering some decent voice acting too.

Lace Mamba have told Gbase that atmospheric-looking exploration game Lifeless Planet (which now looks increasingly un-lifeless, if you look at the trailer below) has been delayed until the second or third quarter of this year. The game, which features an astronaut discovering a Russian town on a distant planet, is one of the most intriguing Kickstarted games due to turn up this year, so hopefully the delay will prove to be worthwhile.

Last November we spotted an amazing-looking game being Kickstarted (before it was cool) called Lifeless Planet. Attempting to create a game with an Ico-vibe, the mysterious exploration of a planet managed to secure more than double its funding. And, predictable, hasn’t come out by the predicted release date on the project (now aiming for Winter). However, it’s going to be featured at the Kickstarter Arcade at this year’s PAX Prime, and there’s a new trailer now. Prepare for spooky and pretty.

There are a fair number of games where after playing them, in fact years after playing them, you tip your head back and scream at the sky, “WHY AREN’T THERE MORE GAMES LIKE THIS?!” Ico is definitely one of those for me. So I’m delighted to hear from David Board, an indie developer who is attempting to fill that particular gap. Lifeless Planet is an action adventure that focuses on the adventure, which appears to involve exploring. Oh thank goodness.